Happy New Year!

We've been hosting the True Men Blog at two blog sites and it's time to roll them into one site. It's been a challenge to take care of both sites.

We've decided to go over to WordPress.

We're so thankful that you've followed this blog faithfully over the last 10 years or so. Please head over to The True Man by Ed Blonski to continue to follow our blog!

May God richly bless you as you begin a new year!

God's Path

It was hot. So very, very hot. And humid. Temperatures were expected to reach 100 and they met and surpassed that expectation. It was about 105 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We drove about a half-hour north in relative comfort, air conditioning and comfortable seats in the SUV. Then we reached the turn-off and parked the car at the trailhead. The adventure was about to begin.

We shouldered our backpacks. I was carrying the food and the camp grill in addition to my tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear and clothes. I estimated that my pack weighed in at about 50 pounds. Thankfully, I had a good, well-made hiker’s backpack and the weight was evenly distributed and the shoulder straps were well padded.

I had been looking forward to this trip for about a year now. I had planned on taking a group of 10 men to the mountains of Idaho for four days in July which would include a servant-event project and a couple of nights of wilderness camping. As it turned out, only two men ended up going with me from the Midwest and we met another guy in Idaho. I wasn’t disappointed, though. It was the perfect group for my first attempt at this kind of Advance (because True Men don’t retreat).

So there we were. The four of us at the trailhead, with water and backpacks, ready to hike up into our campsite. It was very, very hot but I was very, very excited. I felt a little like Moses heading off into the wilderness, or John the Baptist, or even Jesus – all who trekked off into the wilderness to commune closely with God in His creation.

Our initial hike was relatively easy. We climbed a little bit, over a hill and then into a meadow that followed the river. The meadow was about a mile long and it was flat and the hiking was easy going.

We came to the end of the meadow and a pretty big hill loomed in front of us. Looking up I could see the dusty trail ascend in switchbacks all the way to the top and over the hill out of sight. We began to climb. It was a steep climb and I began to breath pretty heavy. It was more rough going that I thought it would be.

I had been preparing myself, physically, for this trip over the last couple of months. I went to the gym nearly every day and walked on an inclined treadmill for 45 minutes, lifted some weights and then rode a stationary bike for 45 minutes. But walking and riding in a gym is not exactly the same as shouldering a fifty-pound backpack and hiking up a steep trail in 105-degree heat with the sun pounding down on you.

About three-quarters of the way up this hill, I began to have doubts that I was going to make it. I found myself simply looking at the trail in front of my feet, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. I was praying that I wouldn’t fall back down the hill. I was also praying I wouldn’t fall over due to a heart attack!

As we crested the hill – which felt more like a small mountain to me – the trail leveled out and after a five-minute walk we came to a ledge. We were about 250 feet above the river overlooking our campsite. We dropped our packs and sat down, drinking water and, in my case, tried to catch my breath. As I looked over the campsite, two competing thoughts were going through my mind. The first was how beautiful this scene was and how great God was in creating all of this. It felt as if He had created this just for me and just for that moment in time. The second thought was how foolish I was to think that I could attempt this hike! Up to this point I had been more geared to sitting behind a desk and a laptop. What was I doing out here in the wilderness? Thankfully, the first thought won the competition!

After about 15 minutes, we again shouldered our packs and made our descent to the river. That took about another 45 minutes. We walked out of the wooded trail into another meadow and crossed that to the river’s edge. We had to ford the river to reach our campsite.

We took off our shoes and socks and proceeded to walk across the river, which was about fifty feet across here and about two feet deep.

As hot as the air was, that was how cold the water was. I guess about 55 degrees and that was shockingly cold on bare skin!

Crossing this river looked like it was going to be a “piece of cake.” But a wise person once said that phrases like “a piece of cake” are considered famous last words for a reason. That was the case here.

I wanted to put my feet on the large, smooth rocks, as it was easier on my feet than the small, jagged, sharp rocks. But when I would step on the smooth rocks, I found that they were so slippery that I couldn’t keep my feet or balance when I did! I would end up in the water on my back if I tried to do that. So instead of being able to put my feet where I wanted to, I had to put them where I needed to. That was not the easiest or most comfortable path, but it was the safest and, ultimately, driest path. Along the way, I could rest my feet on the large, smooth rocks, but I couldn’t walk on them.

I’ve found that life is much like this. After forty years, I can see an easy, smooth path for my life that I would love to follow. But I really can’t. God has called me to follow Him and that path is often filled with small, sharp, jagged rocks. It makes for less comfort but much more safety. I can stop and rest at the smooth parts, but I cannot stay there and I cannot live there. Most of the time I would like to be able to live the so-called easy life. Get up when I want to. Spend my day as I want to. Not worry about money so I could do the things that I want to do when I want to do them. Not have responsibilities, cares, or worries. But that isn’t how the life of a true man or woman of God is lived. Because God has called us to be His own man or woman, we are to follow Him on the paths that He leads us on. We are to follow in His footsteps. And those steps were made by nail-scarred feet two thousand years ago. The Son of God still leads us today and it isn’t along a path of large, smooth stones. It can be a path of small, jagged rocks. It can be a path that isn’t easy by the world’s standards. But God’s path that we follow is the one that will lead us to the fulfillment of our faith in Christ – eternal life along “white shores; and beyond them, a far green country under a swift sunrise.” [Adapted from the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King]

After about a half-hour I finally reached the far shore of that river and 10 minutes later I was setting up my tent at our campsite. It was an ordeal crossing that river – and I would cross it three more times before heading out of the wilderness – but I’m glad that I had the experience.

© 2015 True Men Ministries

On Fire

A brush fire in Southern California is cause for sprinting into action and getting it under control and putting it out as quickly as possible. And that’s a good thing when lives and property are in danger.

Having lived in Southern California, I have a new perspective on brush fires and forest fires. California is a big state. It has a big population. California does just about everything “big”! Including, it seems, fires. Hundreds of thousands of acres can be burned to the ground in a handful of days. Millions of dollars’ worth of homes and property are destroyed in a matter of hours.

Recently, a new company was formed to “up the scale” of fighting these fires. In the past, helicopters have been used to drop water or chemical retardants on the fires. This new company has bought a fleet of jets to do the job. Modified passenger jets that can hold ten times the amount of water or chemicals to drop on a fire.

There are times when forest fires are good things – set off by lightening they can burn out underbrush and revitalize the soil so other plants and trees can thrive. But when a fire is set accidentally at a construction site by an acetylene torch or, worse, set on purpose by an arsonist, fire departments and the forest service work fast and furious to put out the dangerous blaze.

This got me to thinking about being on fire for the Lord. There comes a time in every congregation’s or national church body’s life when a person or a group of people will really be passionate about the Great Commission. They will be “on fire for the Lord” to get the Gospel message to as many people as possible. Most often, they will employ creative and innovated ways of telling the Good News about Jesus.

91 years ago three pastors were ignited by the Holy Spirit to bring the Gospel to the city of St. Louis and beyond through a new medium. It had never been tried before. There were plenty who said, “we’ve never done it that way.” But in 1924, the first broadcast of KFUO AM radio began and the result was hundreds of millions of people who have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ ever since.

Each congregation of the Christian Church has people like these three pastors. Yet there are others who act like the California fire departments! They swiftly and strongly try to put out the fire of innovation and creativity that is used to tell the Good News about Jesus is new ways.

I say, that as long as God’s Word is heeded, let these people burn! Don’t try to put out the fire that obviously comes from the Holy Spirit. Each generation needs to be reached with the ageless Gospel of Jesus Christ in new and fresh ways. When you see someone on fire for the Lord, encourage him or her. Don’t try to put the flames out!

© 2015 True Men Ministries

Role Models

There are many “role models” for us in the Bible. In the past I’ve led a men’s study on the life of King David. The book of Acts tells us that David was a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). That is the goal of this True Men Ministries’ men’s study – to find ways that we can become “men after God’s own heart” through the examples in the life of David. Of course, sometimes those examples will be of the nature of “what not to do” – especially his parenting style with Absolom and his infidelity with Bathsheba. I led this Bible study on the life of David because he is very much an “every man.” Most men can see a little of themselves in David.

I’ve also been exploring Peter as a role model for men. Considered a giant in the Church – with over 1 billion Christian considering him as the founder of the Christian Church (as the first pope). One of the things that intrigued me about the Roman Catholic’s view of St. Peter is that they promote him as the first pope and such, but seem to conveniently overlook that Peter had a “foot-shaped mouth.” Peter is a great role model for men today because he had many of the “down to earth” qualities that many men have today. But Peter also was used greatly and powerfully by Christ in this world.

Yet another man who could serve as a role model for us today is John the Baptist.

John the Baptist is a difficult character to present to men as a role model. The reason is because there is very little we know of him that men can really relate well to. Sure, we know from Matthew 3 that his birth was foretold by an angel – but how many men today can claim that? He was born to parents that were quite old – some men may be able to relate to that. We know that he was a relative of a very famous person – and I suppose that some men could sympathize with that situation. But after that, all we know of John the Baptist was that he was supremely faithful to his calling from God to prepare the way for the Messiah. While that is an excellent goal for men today to strive for, it is also very intimidating – leading me and, I’m sure, other men to say, “I could never get to that point in my faith life.”

Yet, I believe John the Baptist could be an excellent role model. This is from an article in the September/October issue of New Man Magazine (and can be found here: http://www.charismamag.com/life/men/5329-an-obedient-man ), written by Roger C. Palms:

John the Baptist came preaching in the spirit and power of the prophet Elijah (see Mal. 4:5; Matt. 11:14). He wore hair-skin clothing and ate locusts and honey (see Matt. 3:4). He was a man on a mission sent to prepare the way for Jesus. A lone voice, John cried out not in the big cities but in the desert. He didn't do it for headlines; he did it to make a people ready to meet Jesus so that "all people will see the salvation sent from God" (Luke 3:6, NLT).

John's mission was from God, who gave him the message. John knew who he was and who he wasn't. He said: "'I am not the Messiah'" (John 1:20) and "'Someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am'" (Matt. 3:11). John was not a self-promoter.

How many men confuse the message and calling of God with their own sense of importance? If our birth was announced by the angel Gabriel, would we still say, "'He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less'" (John 3:30)? Or would we go around boasting about who we are? John could have done that. Instead, he was obedient. He stepped aside for Jesus and God gave him the opportunity to baptize and announce the Messiah (see Matt. 3:13-16).

John was born of parents who were faithful to God: "Both of them were upright in the sight of God" (Luke 1:6). But both were also old. John was God's miracle baby for them. In spite of that beginning and the joy he brought to his aged parents, he was never his own. He was a man called by God and he yielded to that call. During his life, John never had the things most men want: a family, house, prestigious job and easy death in his old age.

John's death came at the whim of a powerful woman and a weak husband who did what she asked. John was beheaded during a rich man's birthday banquet and his head was brought to the revelers on a platter (see Matt.14:6-12). What did John do to get himself murdered? He told the truth to the king (see Mark 6:17-29).

"Unfair!" we cry out when a person is treated brutally, as John was. Why was he able to do that? How simple it would have been to keep his mouth shut about the king's morals. There is a way to live an easy, comfortable life—don't obey God. But John did obey God. He was faithful and for that faithfulness he was killed. John didn't invite suffering, but he accepted it.

Are you open to the leading of God even if it means that you must become less just as John did? Will it matter to you if your obedience takes you to the desert rather than to a palace? Will you always point people to the Savior? Jesus had something powerful to say about John: "None is greater than John the Baptist'" (Matt. 11:11). What an epitaph for an obedient man. What a selfless man of God. What an example for today's man.

© 2015 True Men Ministries

Tradition

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce, for they replace God’s commands with their own man-made teachings.” Isaiah 29:13 as quoted in Mark 7:7.

In 1914, Bayer started putting cotton in their bottles of aspirin to reduce breakage of the tablets during shipment from the manufacturing plant to the store. In the mid-1980s, however, they figured out that if they coated the tablets with Toleraid microcoating, that this would make the tablets less susceptible to breakage. Amazingly, it wasn't until January 1999 that they finally made the decision to get rid of the cotton ball in the aspirin bottle, and this only after four and a half years of testing and discussions. An eighty-five year old tradition ended, some fifteen years after it had become obsolete.

How many traditions in the Church need to also be ended because they are obsolete?

This is part of the point that Jesus makes in Mark 7. The Pharisees are critical of Jesus’ disciples because they don’t ceremonially wash their hands before they eat. Jesus’ response is in Mark 7:7, where He quotes Isaiah 29:13 (see above).

I’m all for traditions. There are some beloved traditions in my own family – cutting down the family Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving is one. Family pizza night on Fridays and Family pancake breakfast on Saturdays are two more. Then there is the “Christmas Candle” tradition that was passed down from my grandmother, to my mother, to me.

Some traditions are worthwhile and important to maintain, especially in the Church. But if a tradition is maintained at the expense of the relationship that it is meant to build and strengthen, then it is something that needs to be questioned and, just possibly, discarded.

God wants, above all else, to have a relationship with you. He cares so much – He loves you so much – that He sent Jesus Christ to die in your place, for your sin, on the cross. The traditions that Scripture establishes – such as prayer, hymn/song singing, Holy Communion – are meant to uphold and strengthen that relationship that God desires with you.

If you don’t know why something is done in your worship service, ask your pastor or elder/deacon or altar guild member. Most likely they will be able to tell you and you’ll be amazed at how it gels with the relationship that God wants with you.

But if the answer is “because we’ve always done it that way” then I say it’s a tradition that needs to be seriously questioned. You may find that even though most people feel that it’s only done “because it’s always been done” it really does point to a worthwhile tradition that nobody knew the reason for. Finding out that reason will be a relationship building exercise – and it most likely will be fun, too!

Check out the traditions in your church. I think you’ll be amazed at what you find! And if you find it amazing, share it with me by sending me an email about your tradition and the reason that you found out it is done.

Have fun and have a good worship experience!

© 2015 True Men Ministries

Light For the Path

After a very long night, we arrived at camp. Last night was a night of flight delays, rowdy drunk guys, and closed car rental places. This afternoon was a short hike up to Fern Falls and then Shadow Falls.

Relatively few people see these two beautiful spots in the creation. They aren’t on any tourist maps. Nothing really tells you they are here except for a brown and white sign that points up a dirt road.

Fern Falls, Northern Idaho 

Shadow Falls, Northern Idaho

 

 The trails to these two falls are wide and easily traveled. Even though it was near 100 degrees, the air around the falling water is cool. After a hot walk, it is very refreshing.

On the way back down the dirt road, we pulled off to take a really great picture of the mountains and valleys around us.

 As I was looking over this sight I began to think about how great God is – it was almost as if He created this just for me at just this moment. Then I began to think that maybe God created me for just this moment and sight. Maybe it’s a little of both.

The three of us began to think out loud and I mentioned how this view is only good during the daytime. At night it would only be dark shadows, unless there was a full moon. I thought that it might look pretty cool under a full moon. But one of my companions noted that it would be scary looking.

As I thought about that for a while, I found that I agreed with him. It was then that I thought that life was pretty much the same way. It looks great in the daytime, in the light of the sun. But it’s scary when there’s no light.

Without the light of Christ in our hearts and shining on our lives, life is frightening. In the dark, walking through life is dangerous. You can’t see the trail. You might wander off the trail and off the side of the mountain, never to be seen or heard from again. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” When I remember that John 1 says that Jesus Christ is the “Word of God” this makes perfect sense to me.

Without Christ in my life as savior, brother, shepherd, warrior, friend, I wouldn’t be safe. I would be living my life like I was walking on that mountain trail at night. It would be scary and I could very well stumble and fall down the mountainside.

Hiking mountain trails in Northern Idaho is amazing. In the daytime. The views are spectacular. It is strenuous due to heat and altitude. But it is all worth it. What I mean is that it isn’t easy, but it is fulfilling and rewarding. But hiking at night is none of those things. It is foolish and downright dangerous. I found that on many parts of the trail I needed to look right in front of me to where I was going to put my foot next. At night I couldn’t do that.

It’s the same thing living life without Christ shining the way. Every day, I need to be in the Word of God so that the Word of God – Jesus Christ – is guiding me, showing me where to put my feet at the next step. I need to follow the footsteps of nail-scarred feet to get through this life.

© 2015 True Men Ministries

Becoming God's Man

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” “Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:5-10

I was a freshman in college when I wanted to be a senior in high school.

What happened was that I was 18 and graduated from my own high school. One of my best friends was a year younger than me. He went to a catholic high school in Northern Illinois. He lived across the bay from me but I had gone to a public high school. I was taking freshman classes at the local community college because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I thought I did, but it turned out I didn’t have a clue. Only today do I realize that it had a lot to do with what I was going through in my life at the time. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a good senior year of my own, but I put my heart and soul into my best friend’s senior year. I went to his senior year homecoming with a girl from his high school. I went to his senior prom with another girl from his high school. I went to his football games, basketball games, and we hung out all the time.

I didn’t know who I was. But God did. And God started me on the road to becoming His man.

After that year, I transferred to a Lutheran college and began to study for the ministry. But I still hadn’t quite figured out who I was, even if I had begun to figure out what I was going to do with my life.

In college, I started hanging out with a group of guys. Great guys. They were all studying to be pastors like me (although they were much better at the whole “going to class” thing than I was). We began to sing together and we were pretty good. It might have been simply coincidence (but then again, maybe not) that they were all from Iowa. Most Iowans are intensely proud of their state and their heritage (it must be something in the corn) and these guys were no different. I was the odd man out, being from Illinois, specifically the Chicago area (about as different from Iowa as any place could be).

I still didn’t know who I was. I was still trying to find myself. And I’m almost afraid to admit this – and I know I’ll hear it from those guys after they read this – but I was sorely tempted to try to become an Iowan myself. I saw how happy, how solid, how full of life these guys were. I wanted to be a man like that.

But it is a testament to how far God had brought me without my even realizing it that I never really went too far in becoming an Iowan. I think the furthest I got was to read a book called “The Iowa Baseball Confederacy” by W. P. Kinsella (who also wrote “Shoeless Joe” which became the movie “A Field of Dreams.”)

Instead of trying yet again to become someone else, I began to become myself. Or rather, I was beginning to become the man God had in mind when He made me.

There is something inside us as humans that deny who we are and makes many of us try to be something we are not. I suspect it has something to do with losing the image of God that we were originally created with. We lost who we were and sin makes us try to be something else.

Then a miracle happened. Since we couldn’t become who we were meant to be, God became one of us. God become human in Jesus of Nazareth. He took on flesh and blood. Then He spilled that blood and broke that flesh on the cross and took away our sin.

Jesus’ death and resurrection makes us who we are – children of God. It was and is a defining moment in our lives.

No longer do I have to pretend to be something else – a part of my best friend’s senior year or an Iowan (sorry guys!). I can be me. Pastor. Husband. Father. son (little “s”) of God through baptism.

I can be the man God has called to tell the Good News about Jesus. I can be the man who loves one woman (and has for over 24 years) as unconditionally as any human can. I can be the man who raises three boys to know Jesus, love baseball and Chicago, and I can be the man who thanks God everyday for my life. My life. Not a life I envisioned long ago when I didn’t know who I was. Not a life of trying to be someone I’m not nor ever could be.

I thank God for the death and resurrection of Jesus that makes me His man. Each day He reveals a little more about me, and that’s pretty exciting!

© 2015 True Men Ministries

Patience

What is it about patience?

I’ve played poker online. Play money only. And I like to play in 10-player tournaments. We all start out with $1500 in chips. Usually, within the first couple of hands, someone will go “all-in,” that is bet all their chips. And 9 times out of 10 they will lose. To win about 75% of these tournaments all I have to do is be patient and wait for the impatient, and mostly immature, players to blow all their chips.

But this isn’t about winning at poker. It’s really about life, I think. Waiting till all the “fluff” and “stuff” gets out of the way before you really play. I don’t pretend to know much about military strategy, but I would assume that it is the same kind of thing. There will always be someone who wants to get all he can right away and is willing to risk everything.

Maybe the mentality is that there will always be more to fill up the emptied bank account.

But life is rarely like that. Oh, a whole generation has been raised to believe that all a person has to do is deposit another quarter in the slot to replenish a “life” for a new game. But when it really comes down to it, there is no “new game.” This is the only game we’re given. And we don’t get unlimited lives – unlike most of the video games out there that have “cheat” codes that allow a “god” mode where you can’t be killed.

When I’ve played golf, sometimes I play “mulligans,” where you get to hit an extra ball if the first ball you hit doesn’t go where  you would like it to go (which often happens to me). But in “real” golf, you get no such mulligans. You have to play the ball you hit, whether good or bad.

What’s the point? I’m not sure, really. Except to say that while I may not be able to make the best with what I’ve been given, I think that God can, and does, real good with what I’ve been given. Because what I’ve been given, He’s given me and He promises to do good with it, for the sake of His son Jesus Christ.

© 2015 True Men Ministries

Know God

“The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” Psalm 46:7

When I was about 8 years old, I lived in a house on a hill overlooking Long Lake in Northern Illinois. It was March and I was looking forward to my birthday. Winter was slowly coming to an end – it had been a glorious winter! Cold and snowy, the creek that ran in back of our house had frozen in December and we played hockey out there as much as we could.

It was a Saturday and I was walking along the bank of the creek. I kept looking at the ice, wondering if the recent warm spell had weakened the ice. I threw rocks and sticks out onto the ice – nothing happened. Finally, I got enough courage to test it myself. I slipped down the bank onto the edge of the ice. So far so good! I took one step out, then another step and – whoosh! – fell right through. Thankfully, the creek was only about 3 feet deep at that point. I sank up to my waste in the freezing water. I was pretty scared, first because I knew that you could die if you fell through ice. But then, when I realized I probably wasn’t going to die since I was only two feet from shore and in three feet of water, I was scared because my mom was going to kill me for doing something so stupid!

I was reminded of this story by my morning devotion today. It comes from Patrick Morley in his book Coming Back to God. He tells a story he once heard from his professor.

“A man was hiking on a cold winter day. He came to a river that appeared to be frozen over. Since he was unfamiliar with the area, he didn’t know how thick the ice was. Naturally, he was afraid of walking out and falling through. So he got down on his stomach and slowly inched his way out onto the ice.

When he crawled near the middle of the river, the air began to tremble as he heard a rumbling sound drawing closer and closer.

Suddenly a wagon with four horses at a full gallop shot over the crest of the riverbank, thundered across the river, then disappeared over the crest on the other side. And there he was, lying on the ice, feeling foolish.”

What can look like solid ground may not be. But then again, it may be. It pays to know the territory as best you can so that you don’t get wet or look foolish.

In a lot of ways, this is how God is. He is an amazing God, our God is. He is unfathomable. We could spend eternity trying to figure Him out and we probably never will. But the promise from our God is that we can spend that eternity trying to do that because He saved us for eternity through the death and resurrection of His Son.

We can begin today to learn more about God. He’s revealed a lifetime worth of stuff in His Word. I encourage you to open His Word today – start at Psalm 46 and begin to see just how amazing our God is.

© 2015 True Men Ministries

The Other Side of the Miracle

Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. They were utterly astonished, saying, "He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."  - Mark 7:31-37

12 years ago I witnessed an event that has happened only three other times in my lifetime up to that point (and has only happened twice since). I was be able to watch the Chicago Cubs in a playoff series. Baseball, like life, has its winners and losers. It has its surprises. You can be as prepared as possible and still have to rely on something completely out of your control for results.

In 2003 the Chicago Cubs had to rely on the efforts of other teams to make the playoffs that year. Combined with the Brewers defeating the Houston Astros twice, the Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates twice to earn a spot in the National League Playoffs. The Astros and the Pirates had to lose so that the Cubs could win.

You see, there’s the miracle and then there’s the other side of the miracle.

Christine was a normal college student but one day she was having trouble seeing. After her vision didn't clear, she went to the doctor. The doctor told her that there was something seriously wrong with her eyes and she would have to go home and see a specialist. The specialist told her that to save her eyesight she would have to have a lens transplant, but the lenses had to come from a person about the same age as her. Someone in their late teens or early twenties would have to die and donate their lenses so Christine would be able to see. Soon after that, there was a tragic car accident and a 16-year-old young man died. His family agreed to donate his lenses and today Christine is able to see. It was truly a miracle for Christine; nevertheless, the family of that 16-year-old young man was on the other side of the miracle.

What is it like to be on the other side of someone else's miracle? Is it a place you've been? How does it feel?

You have a God that knows exactly how it feels.

Jesus Christ was on the other side of the miracle that saved your soul. His death on the cross earned your salvation. You did nothing to earn it. There was nothing you could ever do to earn it. The salvation that Jesus earned on the cross comes to you by grace – pure and free. But it cost Jesus his very life. The author of life – through whom all living things (and all non-living things, for that matter) were made died so you could live forever.

I had a friend named Mark who died 13 years ago. He faced his own death from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Yet he was an instrument through whom God sent miracles to others. Others witnessed how he kept his faith, kept loving his Lord, kept serving his Savior. Through all that I’m sure their faith was strengthen even as Mark’s body weakened and eventually died.

I think that either you receive the miracle or you’re the person through whom God gives a miracle to someone else. Either way, God is at work and we are blessed.

The next time you see a miracle, remember the one who works it – our God and Savior who gives us life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

© 2015 True Men Ministries

Smells

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2

Do you smell it? It is the smell of bacon frying. It is the smell of coffee percolating. It is Sunday morning. Worship starts in 3 hours. I amble through the kitchen toward these smells to start my day of worship. Somehow, it just wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t smell these things.

It is the smell of crunching leaves that have changed color and fallen. Of pumpkin pie spices and burning leaves. These are the smells of autumn (at least for me).

The smell of peanuts and stale beer. These are the smells of baseball, of a big-league ballpark.

The smell of pine and apple-cinnamon and mint. These are the smells of Christmas.

The smell of wine and freshly cut flowers. These are the smells of worship. This is what I smell as I stand at the altar preparing it for Holy Communion.

Smells are very powerful. They invoke feelings of seasons and events. The invoke memories (a whole episode of M*A*S*H was dedicated to this).

Smells are also part of our relationship with God. Starting in Exodus 25, God instructs his people to build a place of worship. There are specific items that are dedicated to smells. The Altar of Incense and various forms of incense would be used. Partly, I think, to have a distinctive smell associated with the worship of God. Partly to cover up the smell of all the sacrifices that would be made. But there is one more reason.

Our sin must raise a stink in God’s nose. The filth of our evil deeds. Our thoughts, our actions, must raise an awful stench to him.

How do we clean ourselves of this smell? I’m afraid it just isn’t possible for us to do this. No soap is strong enough to clean us of our sin. Oh, we certainly try. We apologize to those we wrong. Sometimes, if we’re guilty enough we will give money to the church or some charity to try to ease our conscience. But the smell lingers like smoke on your clothes after sitting around a campfire.

How can we get rid of the smell of sin in our lives? Sin has to be removed. It would be the love of Jesus Christ who “gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)

Each season has its distinctive smells, and that can help us remember that we smell pretty good to God because of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection for us. The next time you walk into a kitchen to smell the good smells there, thank God that Jesus takes away your stinking sin and makes you smell good with his righteousness.

Going Home

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. Hebrews 11:13-14

In the movie “Cheaper by the Dozen” (the 2003 remake with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt), the Baker family moves from a small town in downstate Illinois to an affluent suburb of Chicago. The oldest son of the family, Charlie, is very unhappy with the move.

I would think that most 17 year olds would be looking forward to a move like that, shaking the dust of the small town off their feet. But Charlie and the rest of the Baker children are not happy with the new move. They liked their life in the small town.

There are a lot of stories about young men and women who dream of leaving home, of leaving their small town and making their fortunes or a name for themselves in the big city.

When I was younger, this was my story as well.

I was in high school. It was the early 80’s. I was involved with my church’s youth group and went to church pretty faithfully. I was pretty grounded in the faith. But I also had dreams and desires about how my life would be and it didn’t involve professional church work. The early 80’s was the advent of the personal computer. And I was fascinated with them. I had graduated from a TRS-80 (Radio Shack’s model) to an Apple ][+ to an IBM PC (remember those commercials with the Charlie Chaplin look-alike?). I could program fairly well in the most BASIC of computer languages. I was no prodigy like my best friend Mike, but I enjoyed computers and thought I had a future in them. My dream was to leave Fox Lake and move on to the University of Illinois and then on to MIT to pursue a life in robotic engineering.

Of course, God had other things in mind and through my passion for history and, what I would later find out, ministry, I finally did leave that small town and moved to another, smaller town. But in-between I lived in a fairly large town (St. Louis, Missouri). That’s where I met my wife, so it did turn out that a big city would be in the plans at one point.

I’ve found that as much as I looked forward to leaving my small, home town when I was younger, I looked forward just as fondly to every visit I made back there. While my home was in various other places (White Cloud, Michigan, Mayville, WI, Upland, CA), I captured a little of feelings of home when I returned. What was especially nice was returning to that home with my wife and kids – I guess it’s sort of like having the best of both worlds.

Wherever I lived, I found myself listening to radio stations from near my hometown. Listening to their weather forecasts and traffic reports –while had no direct bearing on me where I was – it was comforting in a way because they were a part of the feeling of “home.”

Yet, with all these feelings of home –whether it is the hometown I escaped or the hometown I live in now – I’m not really home, am I?  I am really a “stranger and alien.” Living out my life here while looking forward, with hope, to my home that even now Jesus is preparing for me.

Heaven is my home and I’m but a stranger here. I will be going home someday because Jesus died to take away my sin. His death and resurrection transform my time here away from home, giving me purpose and direction. But Jesus’ death and resurrection also give me hope of a better place that a one-time carpenter from Nazareth is building for me now.

Ironically – and this is a wonderful insight into how God was preparing me for this very moment in life – I made my way back to my “home town” 15 years after being ordained into the Pastoral Ministry. My first call was in a very small town in rural Michigan, then I moved to a small town in Wisconsin. Then to an affluent suburb of Los Angeles.

But five years ago, my family and I moved back to Lake County, Illinois just a few miles from my home town of Fox Lake.

Isn’t it amazing how God works?

Merry Christmas

God became a human being. Unique among the world religions.

God also died to save all human beings. Also unique among the world religions.

I focus on these two things - that God became a human being and that God died to save humanity (and me) - during this time of year.

Everything else is not worth worrying, whining, or wishing about.

I wish you a very blessed Christmas and pray that God will touch your heart in a special way this Christmas.

In the Dark

Life begins in darkness. For about 9 months, each human being is “in the dark.” Coming into the light must be a frightening thing – strangers with masks on, bright lights shining directly on you, lots of noise. But then the warmth of a mother’s arms, soft words of love and comfort, life in the light is very different than how it began in the dark.

This holds true throughout our lives. Many Christians talk about a “dark night of the soul” and life can be like that sometimes. Going through periods of darkness – depression, terror, the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, and so on.

This seems to be the natural way of things. God even tells us, in His Word, that, “weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5 ESV).

I was reading a book by Frank Viola called “Revise Us Again” and in it, I learned a truth that I had overlooked all these years. The truth that God begins our lives, begins all our blessings, in the dark and not in the light!

In the first chapter of Genesis, it is made very clear that each day begins in the evening – at sundown and not in the morning at sunrise.

Jesus Christ was born at night. He died when darkness covered the land. He rose from the dead early on the first day of the week while it was still dark.

“It is in the hidden hours of the night that God does His deepest work of transformation. The night, the evening, and the darkness are all promises of a new day.

If you can hold this in your heart, it will change your life” (Revise Us Again, p 115).

If you are going through a “dark night of the soul” then keep this in mind!

If it feels like your life is ending, think about this: “What we call the end, God calls the beginning. God takes away to establish, and what He establishes is always better. As high as God is going to elevate you is as deep as He digs to lay the foundation” (p 115).

Help bring back "The Classical Stream" - produced and hosted by Ed Blonski 

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Growing Up

I have spoken with many former church members and not-a-few former Christians.

Many of them have told me that they left the Church or left the Christian faith when they were younger – teenagers or early 20’s. When I ask them what it was that caused them to decide to leave, the same kind of story is told.

They had a question about God, they asked the pastor, and didn’t get the answer they were expecting (or wanted).

Steve Jobs was one such person. I never met or talked with Steve Jobs, but this story is documented in Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography.

The soon-to-be founder of Apple computers rejected Christianity because of one incident he had with a Lutheran pastor. Walter Isaacson tells the story:

“Even though they were not fervent about their [own] faith, Steve Job’s parents wanted him to have a religious upbringing, so they took him to the Lutheran church most Sundays. That came to an end when he was thirteen. In July 1968 Life magazine published a shocking cover showing a pair of starving children in Biafra. Jobs took it to Sunday school and confronted the church’s pastor. ‘If I raise my finger, will God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?’

The pastor answered, ‘Yes, God knows everything.’

Jobs then pulled out the Life cover and asked, ‘Well, does God know about this and what’s going to happen to those children?’

‘Steve, I know you don’t understand, but yes, God knows about that.’

Jobs announced that he didn’t want to have anything to do with worshipping such a God, and he never went back to church.” [Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, pp 14-15, Simon & Schuster, 2011]

There are many supposedly enlightened people whose rejection of religion rests on just such a flimsy foundation. They are still living as adults on the basis of a rejection of a kindergarten version of the Christian Faith which they probably misunderstood in the first place.

When I was 13, I had some specific ideas about the world, my place in this world, and how I should live my life.

As I am now 36 years removed from those ideas, I certainly don’t live by many – if any – of them.

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Corinthians 13:11 ESV).

It is sad if a person continues to think about the Church, God, and life in general, based on something that happened when they were younger.

The Good News is that God still loves each one of us with an unconditional love. He is ready and willing to welcome us back to Himself.

God’s love for us is the same today as it was when we were children. Jesus Christ still forgives all our sins, the Holy Spirit still prompts repentance, and the Father is ready to welcome us into His strong and loving arms.

Come back to church. God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. Join a Bible study.

And pray for those who, at one time, decided to leave. Pray that the Holy Spirit can use you to help them see that God still loves them and wants them to be a part of a fellowship of believers.

He's Leaving

A few years ago I led a parenting enrichment study at my church. In it, Dr. Kevin Leman taught that toddlers respond to a parent differently that we might expect. For example, if you want a toddler to come to you, you should move away from him. He’ll follow you if you move away. If you moved toward him, he’ll run away.

Of course, it’s one thing to hear someone say that – even if that someone is a parenting expert like Dr. Leman. I did have to try it out before I would really believe it.

And it turned out to be pretty much true!

Now, I’m a long way from being a father to a toddler. Still, I was thinking about this the other day as I was sitting in the gym of my son’s soon-to-be former high school. He was graduating and my wife and I were very proud of him!

This is the view we had of him, though.

We were sitting behind him and the only view of him was this one until he actually received his diploma.

It was fitting that we were sitting behind him, looking at the back of his head. He was literally moving away from us. He just turned 18 years old. He’s heading off to college in August. He’s becoming a man. He’ll always be our son, but he’s also becoming his own man now. My wife and I did the best we could in raising him. But those days are pretty much over now. The choices he makes as he moves away from us are his to make and his to live with.

This picture was taken after my wife was able to make her way to the front of the gym. She had to move in front of him, at least a little bit, to take it and it is a metaphor of our life now. We will have to move, to make strides, to go out of our way to get in front of him now. But we will do what it takes to let him know that he’s never alone. As much as in us lies, we’ll be there for him.

We spent the last 18 years telling our son about Jesus. We took him to church. Studied the Bible and Small Catechism with him. We modeled the best Christian life that we could – a life not lived perfectly but lived in the forgiveness and mercy of God.

Even though he’s going off on his own, only to return to do laundry, get something to eat, or tell us about a life-changing event, he will always be our little boy that we took home from the hospital so long ago. We were more than a little scared then, just as we are now. But my wife and I are also filled with just as much love, more so even, we had then.

For me, what could be a better Father’s day present?

I Love My Church - Part 10

This is based on an article from Hal Seed (accessed here on February 13, 2014).

Hal Seed writes, “A quick read of the book of Acts or the letters in Revelation proves that Jesus loves his church. He died for it, prays for it, lives for it and is going to return for it.

[But] let’s be honest: It’s not easy to love the church. It’s easy to love Jesus. Loving His bride is another story. Churches are filled with frail and fault-riddled people. Every church has a unique personality. All are loved by Jesus, but not all are loved in equal measure by each of His people.”

I agree, loving Jesus is so much easier than loving His bride, the Church. But just like the love of a spouse in marriage, love of the church is more a choice than a feeling.

Based on Hall Seed’s ten reasons that he loves his church, I have ten reasons that I choose to love Jesus’ bride, the Church. They are in no particular order – this is not a ranked list. This week, reason number ten:

10. Full of Marines.

The United States Marines is the smallest branch of the U.S. military. It exists to project military power from the sea (working closely with the U.S. Navy).

U.S. Marines are usually the first armed forces to confront the enemy, doing so in small, compact forces. They may be small in number, but they are powerful! They are dedicated! They are loyal!

That’s the way the Church is, as well. Because let’s face it, we are a small force of powerful, dedicated, and loyal (to God) people who are at war against Satan and his minions.

I think that God intends the Church to be that way – small. If we were a huge army we might get it in our heads that our victories are our own doing. (See the story of Gideon for an example of this idea).

Like a U.S. Marine, we need to be thoroughly trained. The Church has historically done this through what is called “catechetical” studies. Church members are to be in God’s Word daily. Studying the Word, reading it, alone and in groups.

Like a U.S. Marine, we also need to be a part of a “group.” Here, I mean a congregation. There is no such thing as a solitary Christian. In fact, that’s Satan’s most favorite tactic – to get Christians to disengage from their “groups” (congregations) so he can pick them off one by one.

And finally, Like a U.S. Marine, we will never face true defeat. As Christians, as congregations, as a Church, we have already won this war because Christ defeated Satan through His death and resurrection.

There is an added bonus for me personally. The U.S. Marines have the best dress uniforms (in my opinion). And the Church has the best clothes of all – the Robe of Christ’s Righteousness:

“These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:14

It is dangerous work being a U.S. Marine (my uncle gave his life as a Marine in World War II – I wrote about that here). It is also dangerous – in a sense – to be a member of the Christian Church.

Jesus said,

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. (Luke 10:2-3)

Did you catch that? Jesus is sending us out as “lambs in the midst of wolves.” Think about it. What are the chances that a lamb will survive being in the midst of wolves? Next to nil!

But survival isn’t the point of being a member of the Church. Proclaiming the Good News of Jesus is the point! Our survival is assured, not that we’ll live on this earth, but that we’ll live in Paradise forever with Jesus, with no pain, sorrow, tears or death!

Hal Seed echoes my thoughts about why I love my church with these final words:

“I’ll admit again, my church isn’t perfect. We have lots of warts to work on. But Jesus is working on them daily—which may be the most important reason I love my church!” (read his whole article here).

Why do you love your church? I’d love to hear from you!

Why Go to Church?

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” – Psalm 122:1

Pastor Anderson was opening his mail on Thursday morning and he noticed a hand-written letter from Maria. He had noticed that Maria was in church the Sunday before – Easter Sunday – and that was the first time he had seen Maria in church for over a year. What he read in her letter both told him why and dismayed him.

Easter had been a refreshing worship experience for Pastor Anderson. This Lenten season had been particularly grueling. In addition to the regular weekend services, his church also held two mid-week services on Wednesdays. He also had two big funerals during Lent this year. Then there was Holy Week. Special services on Thursday (two), Good Friday (two), an Easter Vigil on Saturday evening and then Easter Sunday services (two). There are different sermons for each day’s service (except for the Easter Vigil, which traditionally doesn’t involve a sermon). By Easter Sunday afternoon, Pastor Anderson was exhausted and near collapse. But he felt good. He saw a lot of people during all the services, some new faces and some faces, like Maria’s, which he hadn’t seen in a long time.

He took a couple of days off and Thursday he was back in the office to get ready for the coming weekend’s services. He was feeling refreshed and re-energized, which is what he expected from the Easter worship services.

But Maria’s letter took him back to earth.

Maria wrote:

                        Dear Reverend,

I just had to write to you to let you know how disappointed I am with you and your leadership of our church. I was in church this last Sunday and I’ve never been to such a boring service. This has been a pattern I’ve seen develop since you’ve been pastor here.

Tell me, why is that every time I come to church you always pick the same songs and preach on the same topics. Since you’ve been pastor, every time I’ve come to church, we always had the same song – Jesus Christ is Risen Today – and you’ve always preached on the same topic – the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

             I hope you can get your act together or I’m afraid our church will die soon.

                        Maria

Unfortunately, there are many Christians like Maria. They even have a rather cynical name. “C & E Christians.” (That stands for “Christmas and Easter” Christians.) That is the only time, other than weddings, funerals or the odd special service like a baptism or confirmation, which these Christians come to worship.

Why was King David happy to come to church?

King David wrote in Psalm 122, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, “’Let us go to the house of the LORD.’”  That kind of happiness is rarely felt in today’s church. But why is that? I don’t think worship was too different back then than it is now. In fact, in some ways it is similar – including music, ritual, and teaching about God’s Word.

What made David different from a lot of Christians in America is that for a long time he was not able to go to worship. He spent a lot of years in the desert, running from an insane king who wanted to kill him. He also spent years at war against his enemies and didn’t have opportunities to go to the house of the Lord.

How can we capture the happiness King David felt today?

Unless you want to follow David’s example (running from an insane king or going to war), there must be another way to capture that happiness of going to church. Know what worship really is one of doing that. Worship, when it is done according to God’s Word, is a powerful experience. You actually come into the presence of the Almighty God and receive from Him promised gifts of grace and mercy. It is also an opportunity to respond to God’s active working in your life by offering prayers and songs of thanksgiving.

Why would we want to?

A question occurred to me when I got to this point. Do people want to have this kind of happiness? I’m tempted to say that most people do not, but then I’m faced with the facts of all the numbers of people who seek happiness in so many ways. There is the popularity of theme parks, exotic vacations, bigger and better homes, and more family time. Then there are the less “family orientated” pursuits of happiness such as internet pornography, extra-marital affairs, alcohol and drug abuse. All of these pursuits tell me that people actually are looking for the kind of happiness that David conveys in verse one of Psalm 122.

This is why I’ve made it my mission to tell as many people as possible that they can have the happiness they pursue in a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died to give us life. Not only as a writer, but also as a pastor, I do my best to tell people that happiness can be theirs. I do my best to write about it. I do my best to preach about it.

I’m sure that you will be among the many, many people who go to church this Easter Sunday. I hope you’ll go again next week. That may be breaking a tradition, but happiness can be yours in the breaking of that tradition. Give it a try! If you do, let me know how it turned out.

Easter Change

Several years ago, I called a radio morning show because they asked the question on the Monday after Easter, “Now that Easter is over when will you take down your Easter decorations?”

I called in to tell the host that Easter was, in fact, not over! Easter Sunday is past, but Easter is a season that lasts 40 days! After Easter Sunday we remember what Jesus said and did with His disciples between His resurrection and His ascension 40 days later.

Many people are tempted to believe that come Monday morning Easter will be over and we can get on with their rest of our lives. It may even be inadvertent, but they equate Easter Sunday with the Easter Season.

Easter continues. And thankfully so. Jesus rose from the dead on that first Easter Sunday. But He remains risen from the dead. He is active in our lives. He is sustaining His Church, His people. He is alive and He is giving life.

John wrote His Gospel with this very thought in mind.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. – John 20:30-31

What do we know about the post-resurrection Jesus and how we know it?

What We Know

What we do know is that Jesus died. No one survives crucifixion. We also know that Jesus Rose from the dead three days later. If this didn’t happen then our faith, as St. Paul says, is in vain. And we know that Jesus’ resurrection was for our justification. (Romans 4:25)

How We Know It

How do we know these things? As the song says, “For the Bible tells me so.”

There are some things you need to know about the Bible because of certain movies you may see. Or someone you know will see a movie and ask you about it (or worse, tell you what the “truth” is about the Bible).

The truth is that God the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the Bible to write what they did.

The truth is that the Key to understanding the Bible is Jesus Christ Himself.

How It Changes Our Lives

Up to this point, this is – while interesting to me and maybe to you – really only “facts” and “history.” But it can be more than that because what we are talking about is something that is alive. The Holy Word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit and He uses it to change lives. He wants to change your life. Will you respond?

It has changed my life. No matter what happens to me, I can handle it, usually well although at times not so well, as some of you may know.

That God is in control of my life, I am positive. He works everything out for good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8). The circumstances are sometimes a bit mysterious, sometimes painful, but always work out for good, of that I am sure.

This application of Easter – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how we know about it – can change your life if only you will let it. I urge you not to resist the work of the Holy Spirit. Give yourself to it. Trust in the Lord. Trust in Christ’s resurrection. Trust in the Bible – all of the Bible. Don’t let others tell you it isn’t true. It is.

And it can change your life – in ways not even dreamt or imagined.